


Hot Spring Interlude

by misura



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: F/M, Pre-Canon, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:06:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24838891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: Matthias and Nina discover a cave with a hot spring inside during their trek.
Relationships: Matthias Helvar/Nina Zenik
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31





	Hot Spring Interlude

Matthias didn't know what he had done for Djel to show him this much favor. Not only had they found a cave that would shelter them from the cold, they had found a cave with a hot spring in the back.

"Do you know how long it's been since I've had a nice, hot bath?" Nina asked.

Her voice sounded as if in her mind, she was already slipping into the water, happy and smiling and naked and -

Matthias forced himself to think of something else. "We could probably both do with a good soak."

He hadn't meant anything by it, other than perhaps to remind that he, too, had spent the past days miserable and cold and hungry. Of course, Nina being Nina, she twisted his words into something else.

She laughed, and Matthias hated himself for how much he enjoyed the sound, for how his first thought was how much he'd missed hearing it. There hadn't been much to laugh about recently. The constant fear of running out of food or shelter did not leave a lot of room for amusement.

"Why, drüskelle, what a thing to suggest." Matthias did not need to look at Nina to know she was batting her eyes at him. That he did so anyway, and felt the tiniest spark of something other than disgust or indifference surely meant that this cave was in no way a gift from Djel.

And yet Matthias knew that he was too weak to resist its temptation.

"We can scrub each other's backs," Nina went on cheerfully. "Won't that be nice?"

"I didn't mean - " Matthias knew that he was blushing. "You can go first."

Nina's laugh was softer now, more - (Matthias tried very hard not to think the word) more _intimate_. It was the sort of laugh shared between lovers, rather than whatever it was the two of them were to one another. Matthias didn't quite know what that was anymore. He wanted to believe they were enemies, would always be enemies, but if he were honest with himself, he knew that was no longer true.

"Such a gentleman," Nina teased. "Though I must admit, I'm not sure what I would have done if you'd tried to stop me from going first. It's not wise, you know, to come between a girl and her bath." She had already started unbuttoning her shirt.

Matthias tried not to stare. There was nothing that he wanted to see, he told himself. "Knowing you, you'd probably have stripped naked and walked right over me if I stood in your way."

Nina laughed again. "You really are starting to know me."

Getting to know Nina was the last thing Matthias wanted. He had no business getting to know Nina, getting to recognize her different sorts of laughs, learning about her favorite foods - that was for between friends, partners, and he and Nina would never be either.

Her shirt was almost all the way undone now, even if she hadn't taken it off yet.

"Move, drüskelle," Nina murmured. "Unless you've changed your mind about joining me after all? It's a big pool - I'm sure we can both fit in there without any risk to your precious virtue."

_I'm not._ Matthias swallowed. He had to force his legs to move, his eyes to look at something other than those parts of Nina's body no longer quite concealed by the shirt. It would be so easy to reach out and touch her, to take her in his arms and -

"Thank you." Nina moved past him. Matthias made himself stand still and not turn his head as she took off the rest of her clothes.

Not that he thought she'd notice him looking. He couldn't quite decide whether that made the idea of watching her worse or better. Not that it mattered. He had that much self-control left, at least.

"I'll let you know when I'm done, all right?" Nina called out, to prove his existence hadn't been forgotten as soon as she'd gotten into the water after all.

Matthias felt absurdly happy about that.

"Take your time," he said.

"Planned to," Nina said, her laugh bright and open and innocent, hard as it should be to apply that word to her. "And hey, if you think I'm taking too long, you can always come and drag me out."

"As if I'd ever be that stupid," Matthias muttered, determinedly walking away to see what was left for dinner.


End file.
